BACKGROUND
Management of severe and persistent mental illness is a complex, resource-intensive challenge for individuals, their families, their treaters, and the healthcare system at large. Community based rehabilitation, in which peer specialists provide support for individuals managing their own condition, has demonstrated effectiveness, but has only been implemented in specialty centers. It remains unclear how the peer based community rehabilitation model could be expanded, given that it requires significant resources to both establish and maintain.
OBJECTIVE
Here, we describe the results from a study of one such program implemented within Waverley Place, a community support program at McLean Hospital emphasizing psychiatric rehabilitation for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. Key questions were whether the patients could and would successfully use the app.
METHODS
The smartphone app offered multiple features relevant to psychiatric rehabilitation, including daily task lists and text messaging with peer specialists. Thirteen patients downloaded the app and used it for up to 90 days.
RESULTS
Only two patients were not able to complete app installation. Five patients were able to use the app regularly as part of their daily lives. No demographic or clinical features predicted ability to use the app in this way, but receiving a message from the certified peer specialist on the first day after installing the app did. Reasons for success or failure were highly individualistic.
CONCLUSIONS
Smartphone apps may become a useful tool for psychiatric rehabilitation, addressing both psychiatric and co-occurring medical problems. Individualizing functions to each patient and facilitating connection with a certified peer specialist may be an important feature of useful apps.
Using Smartphone Apps to Promote Psychiatric Rehabilitation in a Peer-led Community Support Program (Preprint)
